The Roosters on Wednesday confirmed Buck, a former North Warrnambool Eagles and Terang Mortlake utility, would replace Nigel Kol as senior football coach.

He steps into the role after two years honing his craft as an assistant under coaching mastermind Adam Dowie at back-to-back Hampden league premier Koroit.

Buck, 31, believed the apprenticeship had made him ready to take on the top job.

“I’ve learnt a whole lot of stuff under Adam Dowie. The importance of feedback, the importance of communicating with your players and how to train to play, they’re the biggest things,” he said.

“Not only that, Koroit is a great place to learn. They’ve got three other past coaches that are still involved. Obviously Isaac Templeton is a great person and Andrew Paton, Chris McLaren and John Cook are there.”

Buck started his senior football career at Terang Mortlake. He was a member of the Bloods’ 2004 premiership side but missed out on their 2005 success due to a knee reconstruction.

A shift to North Warrnambool Eagles followed in 2006. He spent almost a decade at Bushfield before the lure of coaching prompted him to join Dowie at Koroit.

“The opportunity came up two years ago to go and work under Adam, that was something I really wanted to do. There’s no better person to work under,”  he said.

“I feel the time is just right for me. I feel I’ve learnt a lot under Adam and am ready to put it into practice.

“South contacted me, we had a couple of interviews. I said what I would expect from their footy club and they told me what they expected from a coach. We were on the same page, it worked out beautifully.”

Buck said coach and club were keen to continue blooding a host of exciting, but still raw, talent.

“They’re looking for someone to teach them how to train to become senior footballers. That’s where I see myself coming in. I’m a school teacher by trade, I think I can come in and help teach these guys,” he said.